Zadorozny: Capitals Cup title, Vegas loss great for NHL in long run

Saturday

Twice in two days, hockey and basketball fans witnessed a team claim a championship and the 2017-18 season come to an end.

In hockey, two teams that have never won the Stanley Cup — one playing in its inaugural season — battled in a competitive five-game series.

In basketball, two teams met for the fourth consecutive year and it wasn’t even close, a four-game sweep.

Parity.

Parity is what makes something fun to watch. Different fan bases, different teams and different players are always vying for the top spot, at least that’s how it’s been in hockey, even if the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup the previous two seasons.

Two different teams were in final from the Western Conference both of those years. The Ottawa Senators were one goal away from advancing to the final last season.

This year’s Cup Final may have been one of the best in recent history.

Two fantastic storylines played out in the final.

The expansion-team Vegas Golden Knights, in its first year, became the winningest expansion team and most successful in its first season of any team — ever.

Just watching a team of "misfits" come together and accomplish what they did after the expansion draft is nothing short of jaw-dropping. A seven-game series was more worthy than a five-game series.

But the Washington Capitals, a team that had historically not been able to win big games, especially against the Penguins exercised its demons, beating the Penguins in overtime of Game 7 of the conference semifinals.

The next storyline was Alex Ovechkin, the greatest player from Russia to ever play the game of hockey. Better than even two Red Wings greats — Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Datsyuk.

Critics argued he wasn’t the guy to captain his team. He didn’t show up in big games.

He proved everyone wrong and not only showed up, but won the Conn Smythe trophy, the MVP of the playoffs.

It was well deserved and well earned.

The way the Stanley Cup Final played out between both teams was as best as the NHL could have hoped for.

Ovechkin and the Capitals brought home Washington D.C.’s first championship in 26 years. The goaltending of Braden Holtby was phenomenal, a number of depth players had big games, including Devante Smith-Pelly. He scored seven goals during the regular season. He scored seven in the playoffs.

Meanwhile on the other side of the ice, the scrappy Golden Knights were attempting to finish out a dream season.

They exceeded expectations, hoping to heal the wound of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history that happened just days before the season began.

And although Vegas fell short by three games of winning the Stanley Cup — losing will go much further for the sustained success of hockey in that market.

Sure, the Stanley Cup would’ve been incredible for Vegas. Expectations are they want to be back there next season and the odds in Vegas have them at 10/1.

Not bad for a second-year team.

But for the long-term success of the team in Vegas, winning a Cup may have hurt and spoiled the fan base in the long run. There’s no telling how that would’ve played out — and that’s not to say they still wouldn’t have been successful — because it looks like after one year, the fan base will continue to grow.

Coming so close to the title, three games short, has no doubt given the team and the fan base a taste of what it’s like to have a winning hockey team.

In Michigan, there was 25 consecutive years of playoff hockey.

In a new arena and a rebuilding team, seats are empty and it’s obvious that fans want a winning team. After all, it is "Hockeytown" — but fans will only put up with so much losing after a long period of winning.

The die-hard fans stick by, but the casual fan may not pay attention.

For the sake of the franchise in Vegas, coming so close but losing might be best in the long term and it gave a city, its people and the community something to rally around — and that is the real championship.